Alabama vs Auburn basketball: Highest-ranked matchups between Crimson Tide, Tigers

Posted by author February 15, 2025 Basketball

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On Saturday, Alabama and Auburn will renew their heated rivalry in a matchup featuring two of the best teams in the sport, with the winner picking up not only hard-earned bragging rights, but a victory to validate their national championship aspirations.

The game won’t be taking place on a football field, though.

With just over a month remaining until Selection Sunday, the Crimson Tide and Tigers have established themselves as arguably the two best teams in men’s college basketball during the 2024-25 season. Their meeting Saturday will pit No. 1 Alabama against No. 2 Auburn, marking the first time in SEC history there’s been a conference game between the top two teams in the country (the bitter rivals are reversed in the Associated Press top 25, with the Tide at No. 2 and the Tigers at No. 1).

Though they don’t attract the same attention or interest as the football programs at the respective schools, Alabama and Auburn aren’t historical slouches in basketball. Long before Nate Oats arrived and the program made its first-ever Final Four last year, the Tide was a consistent force nationally under Wimp Sanderson throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. The Tigers were the program of Charles Barkley, and enjoyed a brief run near the top of the sport in the late 1990s under Cliff Ellis.

Saturday’s much-anticipated matchup at Coleman Coliseum raises an understandable question — is there anything close to a historical parallel for this?

Here’s a closer look at previous games between Alabama and Auburn in which both teams were ranked:

Have Alabama and Auburn basketball ever played when both teams were ranked?

Indeed, Saturday’s game will be the sixth time Alabama and Auburn men’s basketball have ever played with both teams ranked in the top 25 nationally.

It’s been a more common occurrence lately, with three of those soon-to-be six contests taking place since January 2022. Never before, however, have both teams been ranked inside the top 10 when they tipped off.

The Tide holds a 3-2 advantage in the five previous games in which both teams were ranked, but it has lost each of the past two.

Here’s a look at the previous ranked matchups between Alabama and Auburn men’s basketball:

Feb. 7, 2024: No. 11 Auburn 99, No. 16 Alabama 81

Johni Broome was a force for the Tigers, finishing with 24 points, seven rebounds and five blocks in a lopsided win at Neville Arena. The Tide would get the last laugh, though. Both teams earned No. 4 seeds to the NCAA Tournament, but Auburn was upset by Yale in the first round while Alabama got all the way to the Final Four.

Jan. 11, 2022: No. 4 Auburn 81, No. 25 Alabama 77

Five months before he was selected as the No. 3 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, Jabari Smith Jr. had 25 points, seven rebounds and four blocks as Auburn rode four Allen Flanigan free throws in the final 58 seconds to break a tie and leave Tuscaloosa with a win.

Jan. 21, 1987: No. 13 Alabama 88, No. 17 Auburn 82

Sanderson’s Tide improved to 14-2 with a victory over a Tigers squad that was one year removed from an Elite Eight run. Alabama ended up earning a No. 2 seed to the NCAA tournament, but was upset by Rick Pitino’s sixth-seeded Providence team in the Sweet 16.

Feb. 1, 1975: No. 9 Alabama 77, No. 14 Auburn 53

The previous record-holder for the best combined rankings between Alabama and Auburn ended up being a laugher, with the Tide blowing out the Tigers. The loss started a late-season slide for Auburn, which started 11-3 but went 6-5 the rest of the way to miss the NCAA Tournament.

Jan. 15, 1955: No. 16 Alabama 99, No. 20 Auburn 78

The Tigers entered the matchup at 4-0, but went 4-9 the rest of the season. The Tide, meanwhile, went 18-5, but didn’t play in the NCAA Tournament — which was just a 24-team event at the time — or the NIT.